 How can I embrace my culture with all this anti-Chinese hate around me? This is a question that gets posed on the internet quite often and we're here with YouTuber Wayme to talk about it. Hey, what's up? Thank you for joining us on this topic. I'll read the post. I'm fine with people hating the CCP, but when people start to label me a certain way and take away my pride from my culture, I feel very bad about myself and I wish that I was not associated with it at all. This might sound really bad, but it's late at night and I've been thinking a lot about this. There's just nothing cool about being Chinese. Every time I open up, you know, different things, it's just all this negative stigma against the Chinese government and it ends up getting all bucketed together to just be like negative against Chinese. Right, and not to mention how trendy Korean and Japanese culture are. It does make Chinese culture look even worse because now you have comparisons. Even Taiwanese culture is considered, you know, more put together or whatever. So anyways, you're Chinese Wayme, you're a YouTuber. Let's talk about it. Have you felt this? Do you understand what this OP is saying? Have you felt it personally or have you seen it? Yes, I've definitely seen this kind of sentiment, which to be fair to look at this, it is really hard. There's no like, oh, do XYZ and you'll automatically feel better because you are part of, you know, a culture. Like you can't just put it behind, right? You're born like that. So I think that overall what I try to do is surround myself with more people who are like similar to me where they're also open-minded, right? And I think something that we can try, which is hard, granted, is to just try and separate what the government's doing from the culture. And even though the culture might not have the kawaii or the K-pop and things like that. We got the Heidi Laudance, though. Yes, we have that. Like the noodles. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, the food, you know, so I think that's my initial thought on that. Does there need to be, and can we come up? You speak Chinese, right? Yes. Can we help come up with a term, the Chinese kawaii or Chinese egg yolk? I'm sure there is a term like that somewhere. I don't know about kawaii. I think doesn't kawaii come from kawaii? Kawaii, but like, I guess, is that, can we, are we able to brand that as cute? Like kawaii. I would call it known kawaii because it's the cuteness of the knowns. Because that's the people who made the Heidi Laudance. It's like, almost like such a, I think that, honestly, I was funny, I had this discussion with somebody the other day and this is a very hard thing for people to embrace. The villagers in China got something special going on in terms of like village humor. You mean they seem like they have the most soul from what you can tell. Like when you're talking about lively Chinese people, Chinese, cheerful Chinese people, people that look like they're enjoying their lives because this is important for imagery. You need to see Chinese people enjoy their lives to have a better image of them and you will view Chinese people differently. You're saying the only ones you see enjoying life are like the more middle-class and lower-middle-class people? Yeah, or people in the rural villages sort of like away from this like, you know, hyper sky scraperization. Like, and I know I'm not, it's such a weird thing to say, but yeah, I just know that those people are like, they're like in their bag right now. Like they're in their element is what I'm saying. Because look how like, I don't even want to get into it, but like yeah, like when they're, you know, they might be eating some frogs in the Yunnan Mountains, but when they're stuffing that frog with the egg yolk and you know, people got criticized for doing that, but like that lady's smiling. Okay, so, but how does that affect the overall image of Chinese? Because we got to talk about this, about how, what are the main things that we're noticing? Because obviously the internet, I don't always want to focus on internet comments. Internet comments will always be bad and inflammatory about everything. But I guess what are things that are closer to us that we can like tangibly feel that we're like, dang, I wish this was different. And then if this was different, Chinese people would be viewed differently or the country would be viewed differently. For me, my whole thing is that the things that are like typify being Chinese and tell me if you agree with this or not, I would say it's like the love of academic achievement and money. That's almost like the number one, like it almost feels like if you had a kid who went to Harvard and got rich, that kid could be like the worst person, but it wouldn't matter because there'd still be a great Chinese child. I think that that is seems, and would you agree with me that in the West, that's an even other Asian countries, it's viewed as a little lopsided thinking. Sure, I could agree. And even in like Southeast Asian countries, the Chinese are like famous for thinking like that, the most out of obviously everybody in Southeast Asia. I would say, and then the number two thing is maybe the lack of expressiveness. And I always said this, the oxytocin piping, the oxytocin piping might need to get redone. And you know, in this area, Andrew, they're trying to build some skyscrapers, but guess what they're doing? They're ripping up all the old piping because in this area, you know, like New York is quite old, right? The piping is from like 1880. And it can't support the piping necessary for the modern buildings that they're building. Right, right, right. It's a great analogy. So they're ripping open the piping and replacing with more modernized piping. So I guess that that's what I'm saying. That's hard though. Piping, ripping it out is going to be painful. How could we do it? Is there a delicious brainstorm? Like this is like a brainstorm session. Like we're putting the minds together here. Okay, so for oxytocin piping, there may need to be some sort of spiritual situation that takes place. Not necessarily religious, but spiritual I think could help. Religious in a conventional Western hemisphere definition of a religion. Okay. Like, okay, so that I think could be there. Like meditation. Yeah, and then different encouraging more expression growing up. Yeah, just like say what you want to say, you know, like Asian parents don't say anything they think. Yeah, right. So what was your relationship with your parents? How cold was it? Was it a very cold Chinese to parent-to-child relationship? Did they ever say I love you? They actually did. So I think that my parents were not the stereotype, stereotype like tiger parents, blah, blah, blah, right? But there were a lot of things that we wouldn't talk to them about just because they wouldn't understand. They're very frugal. All those things care about academics. So did they laugh? Did they enjoy themselves? Was there this in the house or very seldom? They actually did laugh. So I guess what I'm saying is like, aren't they from smaller cities like a little bit like more far out from the from the core? I think that's true. Like, yeah. Yeah, people in the boonies or from the boonies or I don't want to say boonies, but like, you know, just from the smaller towns, they know how to enjoy themselves because you got to find a way to enjoy yourself in the small town. Like I noticed northeastern Chinese people, don't be people. They're always known to be very fun, jovial, jokesters. Because I'm telling stories. Yeah. And the cold winters and this is it's part of the theory is that in the cold winters, they're all locked up and they had to entertain themselves. So they drink more. They laugh more. They're a little bit more loose with it. Sichuan people also known to be a little bit more loose laughter. That could be. But do you think it's because those regions have a lot of influence, for example, Dongbei, Andrew, a lot of Manchurians. And then Sichuan is actually known for having a lot of non Han people. Hey, hey, hey, whatever Han blood is, it's not pure. So I think that that is a small factor, but I can't say it's all of it because then then then it's a genetic thing and then we can't blame any Chinese people. But I'm blaming Chinese people. I think with the advent of epigenetics, like your first three to five years matter a lot because I have some like nephews that are like half Asian and half non Asian and they act so different from the kids at the dessert shop. You know that a full age of the Mongol bo thing, you know, like at the at the mango dessert shop. Like when I see the full Asian kids, sometimes they just be like sitting there, like not even moving. And I'm almost like, yo, is this kid even here? You mean the kids are like, you know, the half Asian nephews, they're like, like running, running, like crazy, like on the tables and stuff. That's a mixture of potentially like genetics, but it's also the epigenetics which are constantly shifting in the first couple of years of their life. And then they get frozen after year five or whatever. I have a suggestion and this is a small one. I think a lot of people could do it. I think Chinese businesses needed to do a better job of just having everybody greet everybody kind of in a way that Japanese people do and smile. And I think that is already going to change the experience. I think people will even make more money because of course I have to tie it back to the bottom line. Guys, I think you'll make more money the friendlier you are. And I think Chinese people, to be honest, do not value that as much. And I think it's time that we start a movement or we start discussing like, hey, it's not going to cost you any more money to be friendlier. It really doesn't. It does not cost the finances of the restaurant will not go through. In fact, it'll help. But do you think it's a wrap for the older generation? Because how can you tell that to somebody who's stuck in the old ways? Yeah, well, I think that if the old ways means valuing money and that will drive them more returning customers. And I think that's the top way to convince them. I also think like when you see oh cash only and stuff like that, right, you can tell that they really care about what's called like coltian like take every penny they can get. But actually in marketing and in the U.S., like you would actually get more customers overall if you're not using those like archaic ways and like trying to smash every penny from people. Right. You're talking about the scarcity mindset. Let's just say growth centric mindset. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Like if they actually wanted to be rich, you know, then there are other ways to do it in better ways than they're doing right now. So you're just saying they need to update their firmware or update their operating system and how they view the world because it's just not like that anymore. It's true that less. I understand the cash business. We all understand taxes. Yeah. Why people do that? But, but I get what you're saying. It would actually open up the market if they even had that option to use the car. Yes, exactly. It's like in this marketing book, I'm reading where like if you try and save money here in little ways, the gains you can get if you focus on other things are way more than the number you see. Right, right, right. Amy, that is so American. I operate with the Chinese mindset and we just, this is how I've always done business and our business does okay like this for decades. So I'm just going to continue doing it. Well, if you don't want to be rich, then you know, just keep doing what you're doing. Yeah, I think you know what is a really funny comparison. And obviously if you guys don't know, way me as a really hyper viral millions and millions of hits channel about how to get into good schools and get straight A's, right? I almost like think it's almost like if you, for example, you're not like Asian parents. They tell the kids to study STEM and they, you know, then they started getting lower personality scores and it's almost like are the Asian parents going to adjust to raise the kids more holistically to fit the standards of what they want the kid to achieve sort of just like having being more jovial at work will just lead to getting more money. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cause like we are in America's playground, right? We can't play by our rules from like China, right? So if you, you're an agent parent, you want to get to Harvard. Like why don't you learn the playbook that people want you to play by, right? Right. Do you think there were more? It's almost like, yeah, I saw Jeremy Lynn. He went to the Harvard by being a number one California state player of the year for basketball. Maybe I will just raise my kid to be that. So at least he can go to Harvard or paste it like an Xavier and Lee if Chinese parents could actually just turn that on and be like, oh, okay. Well, I guess we have to train all of our kids to be tennis stars, golf stars and basketball stars. All right, let's do it. Like if they really could, that'd be incredible. But you know, world doesn't work like that. I guess let's talk about specifics. I think we all agree that Chinese people a small thing and this is why it's not going to change the world. Just smile more, be more friendly because I get it. Chinese people, we don't always focus on this, you know, like, you know, the whole, like we could do a whole Huan Yin Guanying a little bit more or a Ni Hao more. Well, I mean, would you say that the Taiwanese got that from the Japanese kind of kind of? And am I telling people to be more Taiwanese? I'm not saying that, but just, you know, I think it's I think it's tough when it comes from a vibes perspective because a lot of Chinese people are still coming out of like the cultural revolution. I get it. I get it. And it's a little bit like Eastern Europeans. If you Google on Quora or Reddit, why do Eastern Europeans always have a depressed or like glum look on their face? You can get 50 results. Well, what are some of the things that people said in the comments? All right, so a lot of people that were outside of the Eastern European world like Serbian or whatever, they noticed this, right? Like even Yolkic has that face. It seems like Luca is more jovial though, but like Yolkic for sure got the glum goon face, right? And then it's like they were saying that in Eastern European countries, some people were defending themselves saying that if you are very joyous and effusive in your facial expression, people think you have mental illness. Okay, but why? That's a really funny explanation. But why the mental illness is because like the only mentally ill people that they know were like bipolar and schizophrenia. Hey, what's up guys? I didn't read up all the articles in the whole thread about I just pop it up right here. You know, you guys go look it up. Well, well, maybe it's because they're like, why are you smiling? There is nothing to smile about here. So if you're smiling, you must not understand what world you live in. Yeah, I mean, I do think it is the repressed emotions for a due to a governmental system due to a tough history. Some of it, yeah. There was a lot of poverty. Well, you know, that's why. Have you ever seen those videos of Chinese people just dancing to like ridiculous music in China and they're like in the villages and just their kids. Sometimes it's overdub with different music, but like you've seen these videos. No, the Nong Kai. That's what I'm talking about. Or it's just this old lady that's just throwing her body almost like a crump, but she's just like, or getting caught by the Holy Spirit, but she's feeling it to this weird EDM music. And I'm like, that's Chinese people releasing oxytocin and dopamine. And I like to see it. She's trying to feel something. Now it looks goofy to the Western eye because I'm like, what dance is that? What song is this? There's some dang, dang, dang, dang, dang song. No, the MIDI music. Yeah, some song that has like three different layers of drums and that's it. It's pretty wack. But I'm like, nah, this person's feeling something. So I like to see it. So that's why I repost those videos sometimes. Yeah. Anyways, I guess what are some comments? Like, I think we all face it when we're like trying to be proud Chinese people, but like people are like, when they'll accuse you, if you don't want to talk bad about China, and this happens to us on our channel just because we don't bash China because we're more understanding that it's a complex situation and China does a lot of good and bad. It's a huge country. It's 3.5 times the size of America. If you times America's issues by 300%, it would look like a pretty crazy country too. And I'm like, but then we get accused of being like CCP plans. They're like, oh, you guys are, what, you love China? What, you love the government? You love the CCP? Just because you won't talk trash about China? You know what I mean, David? Like this sometimes pops up. Yeah, it does pop up in the comments section. I guess like, you know, for me, that's just not what the channel's about. You know, like if people, I definitely like, I disagree with a lot of decisions that Chinese parents make. Guess what? China has run by Chinese parents. You know what I mean? Like they're strict and they make a lot of like really interesting, like lopsided reads and that's just like the culture in a snapshot and it's still run by what? 70, 80, 60 year old Chinese people. So it's like, I mean, I grew up in a Chinese church. I saw a lot of behavior. I mean, the parents would get results, but I wouldn't raise my kids like that and I wouldn't run China that way either. I guess for you, what have you seen amongst Gen Z people? Because like, you know, China, what's it like being Chinese for Gen Z? Yeah. So personally, I haven't seen that much negative sentiment like toward me. But I think that with most of my friends, they don't see it much either. I think that we tend to surround ourselves with more open-minded people, right? Where like most of the hateful comments are just randos on the internet that we probably wouldn't associate ourselves with anyway, right? So I think like, you know, as a tip, it's like surround yourself with more open-minded people where we can separate like who we are as the individual from our culture because it's not like we stand for it, but we don't have to say we don't stand for it either, right? I mean, you put yourself in a friend group where you don't have to constantly address this, right? If you are you so you're just saying if you're in a friend group and your Chinese kid and your friends are constantly like hammering on you about this, then maybe you're not. These people are they're going to be. You can try to teach them, I guess, but it's going to be tough, right? So maybe you find a different friend group. Yeah, you can't change them. So it's like it's it's not worth your energy, right? How do you separate the culture and the people from the government in your eyes? Like, how do you say it? I know that that sounds logical, obviously, but like, how do you do it? Yeah, so I think it comes from when I visit China. I have a lot of fun there. Some people are really nice and they do smile, especially service workers. And so when I see that kindness from person to person, because at the end of the day where it's humans, the human connection is what makes us happy. Then that's where I can separate that from the government because the government might be suppressing those people you're interacting with, right? So that's kind of how I view it. I would say that. Yeah, like, do you think that this person who left this post like is living on the internet? Or do you think that she, you know what I mean? Like a lot of people are saying like, Oh, where does this person live? The location matters a lot. How much time are you spending online? How many like, you know what I mean? Like, are you in a big city? And then do you have the flexibility to get shift your group of friends or your immediate like radius of people? Yeah, yeah, I do understand. It's hard to shift your group of friends if you're stuck in that one school because I was in a very white school. But yeah, I think that controversial stuff gets viral. It gets pushed out more on TikTok or whatever. So if you don't want your mind to continually be, you know, consuming this kind of stuff and changing your mindset about yourself, then just try and avoid it completely. You know, easier said than done because people like TikTok, but yeah. I would say this, it's like kind of crazy to say this, but there's this song called, You Can Hate Me Now by Nas and Puff Daddy. And you know, Puff Daddy's canceled now or whatever. But like, I remember, I always like thinking that song sort of because I'm just like, hey man, I don't know, bring it on, I guess. I guess. Hey, what can I do about it? I can't stop you. How do you feel about it? And you know, some of the grievances are legitimate that people have, I guess. So whatever. I guess it's tough. I think not everybody can stand that tall. And so I guess is that just going to be their situation? Like they basically, is it kind of one of those situations like you're going to have to suck it up? Like you got to grow some thick skin and you got to suck it up a little bit because this is what it is. I'll tell you this, if we was back in the celestial body, right, Xiang Di, God, Heaven, whatever you want to call it, limbo, you know, different religions call this thing floating in the sky a different place, right? If you want to have an easy identity and you can pick your race, don't pick being Chinese. Like, you know what I mean? That makes it better. I'm saying don't pick it. If we were up in the celestial body, picking like an identity that you want to feel comfortable. Don't pick being Chinese and being super proud of it in America in 2024. But here's the thing. We can't do that, right? That's not how life works. So I guess what I'm saying is this is the situation that is at hand. So like you got to rock with it. It's not going to be for the week. Yeah, I feel like when you get put in a situation like this girl is, it's hard to dig yourself out of the hole. I feel like that for me, I've fortunately been in this place where I'm actually proud that like, if I could actually choose, I'm like, you know, being Chinese American is really cool because I get to experience so many more things than if I were just, you know, white, for example, right? And so I think appreciating the fact that life is full of experiences where I can get more of those, that makes me proud to have come from this heritage. I think one thing that's a good point and one thing that I think is overlooked is like, you can be proud of being Chinese, not just stuff that comes from China, but you can be proud of a lot of like Chinese diaspora. You know, the Chinese diaspora is very vast. A lot of Chinese from Malaysia. Michelle, yo, it's technically Chinese, blood-wise, right? And I'm like, yeah, like you can still take pride in that and that still counts as Chinese. But now that might have been a time where her family got there before communism took over or whatever you want to say it is, but communism also doesn't define Chinese culture either, right? And I don't think it should and people's current image of what communism is shouldn't either. So I think like, that's another thing. It's like, there is actually a lot you can take in, but it is gonna be the job on you to deflect things. And like, like this negativity is coming in, you either turn off the comment section, you don't read it or you don't go on that page or you just don't let it emotionally affect you. Exactly, there's so much access information out there that you have to be selective and protect your energy and who you are, you know? And like, it's like junk food and like healthy food, right? If you take in more junk food, like you're gonna be less healthy. You're gonna think worse about yourself. So, you know, go watch The Brother's Son. After I watched that, I felt so empowered. I was like, dang, like I'm so glad I understand this I feel represented, you know, 626 represent and you know, Chinese food, if you eat Chinese food, right? Like, I mean, that's not to do with the CCP, right? And you don't owe anybody who's like crazy, screaming on the street. You don't owe them a response. I will say this one time a couple of years ago, more right after COVID, there was like this homeless looking dude or troubled looking dude who was like yelling in East Village about like Chinese people like, man, Chinese people, man, they look at him crazy. Chinese people, he's just talking himself. And I told him, I was like, hey, man, like it's not like, I'm Chinese, but like, you know, it's not, that's just our culture. Like we just not like, I don't, it's not like I get treated way differently than you. And I was trying to, and it's funny because I couldn't like hit them back one for one and say, nah, Chinese people aren't like that. What I did was- Did you see what he was coming from? Well, I see what he was coming from. And in my opinion, mentally, it's so hard to convince somebody 180 degrees the other way. So you meet him at 90 degrees, but you tell him with empathy and be like, I know what you're feeling, but that's the way it is for everybody. So calm down. And he did calm down after that, but you see like how I didn't try to beat him and be like, no, what are you talking about? Chinese people are jolly and smiling. Look, man. Cause then he wouldn't even get that message. Like he wouldn't even process it. Yeah. If you are defensive, people are going to back down. People are going to be stronger about their opinions. Yeah. You can't, you can't argue with them. And I would say like, you know, people who generalize, like you're just an agent walking the street like, oh, like you're so bad China, right? Well, I think that as a society, we should be moving away from like putting an individual as part of the whole, right? Cause that's like, you know, for other races too, I don't think they really like being put in that box and being like, oh, your people did this or blah, blah, blah, right? Right, right, right. I mean, I would say this, man, Bruce Lee always had this quote, you know, don't pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. Yes. I love that. And that's like the most Chinese quote, right? Like, just get stronger or whatever like that. But like literally, I mean, I think you could go get Tang Hulu in Midtown, you know, they got to have Machi Machi in K-town now. There's some cute Chinese stuff. It's on the rise. Some kuh-i stuff, kuh-i stuff. And it's from the Nong's, man. I'm telling you. It is true. It's from the villages, man. Hey, nobody hates Tang Hulu. We're talking about the candy fruit on a stick. No one hates it. Yeah, how can you hate that? For a long time, Chinese society was fundamentally rule. So I believe that the rule, I don't even like... Oh, so you're saying, David, it's going back to the soul, the roots of it, the rule of it. Amen. Listen, guys, we're just pontificating here. Well, I don't know the answer. Like we said, you know, earlier to your point, like, there's no, this is not like studying for the SATs or like one of your videos that you can like just like follow these steps and it'll happen. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be like insensitive to say like, oh, just ignore it, you know, and then everything won't be solved. It's like, it's hard. Well, I see it though. I see it a lot. And, you know, I think that these posts are worth making. And I'll make another hundred of these videos because it's on people's minds. It's going viral every time it's posted on Reddit. Clearly, people don't have come to a conclusion. Yeah, I want more people to watch our videos because we're talking about this thing. Yeah. But all right, everybody will wrap it up there. Let us know in the comments down below. Hit that like button. Check out Wayme's videos. And yeah, thank you so much. And again, let us know what you think about this topic because this is just an ongoing discussion. But we're going to keep discussing it because it keeps needing to be discussed. So, all right, everybody, we're the Hop Hop Boys and until next time, we out. Peace.